Don't blame [insert politician], blame the people who elected him!

In the system of voting, not being plundered isn't an option. The choice is to what extent one is plundered and to what extent one receives the fruits of that plunder, with everyone being convinced that he's plundered more than what he receives back. In this way each person feels justified in voting to maximize the amount of pelf directed to himself. This is the war of all against all, organized, systematized and rationalized (as in moral excuse making).

Dr. Robert Higgs writes about those perceptive folks who say that we shouldn't blame the politician, but those who elect him, here.

Ambrose Bierce, among others (including yours truly), did not doubt that representative democracy is a sham: “You can effect a change of robbers every four years,” he wrote. “Inestimable privilege to pull off the glutted leech and attach the lean one! And you cannot even choose among the lean leeches, but must accept those designated by the programmers and showmen who have the reptiles on tap.”

The piece is worth reading.

To be sure, the folks who vote for [insert politician] may be morally repugnant for doing so, or they may be trying to alleviate the predations on themselves which they feel most acutely.